Traditionally, Jack The Ripper is considered to have killed five women, all London prostitutes, during 1888: Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, on August 31, Annie Chapman on September 8, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30 and Mary Jane (Mary Jeanette) Kelly on November 9. In practice there's no agreed list: the most popular change is to discount Stride and/or Kelly, adding Martha Tabram, killed August 7th. Authors naming more than eight have achieved very little consensus. The Ripper generally killed by strangling his victims, then laying them down and cutting the arteries in their throats. This was followed by a varied process of mutilation, during which parts of the body were removed and kept. Because Jack did this quickly , often in the dark, and because he seemed to have great anatomical knowledge, people have assumed the Ripper had a doctor's or surgeon's training. As with much of the case, there is no consensus: a contemporary thought him simply a blunderer.
The Letters and the Nicknames:
During the autumn and the winter of 1888/89 a number of letters circulated among the police and newspapers, all claiming to be from Whitechapel murderer. These include "From Hell" letter and one accompanied by part of a kidney. Ripperologists considered most, if not all, of the letters to be hoaxes, but their impact at the time was considerable, if only because one contained the first use of "Jack The Ripper", a nickname the papers swiftly adopted and which is now synonymous.
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